The present invention relates to a toner container and toner supply apparatus used for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and printer.
[Prior Art-1]
Such an image forming apparatus includes an apparatus wherein one end of the cylindrical toner container having a toner outlet on one end is engaged with a rotation transfer member of an development apparatus provided inside the image forming apparatus, and the toner container is rotated about the centerline of the toner container integrally linked with the rotation transfer member, whereby toner in the toner container is discharged from the toner outlet and is supplied to the development apparatus.
[Problems to be Solved by the Invention-1]
A toner container and toner supply apparatus used in an image forming apparatus for electrophotography are required to meet the high speed of the image forming apparatus. In other words, it is necessary to increase the capacity of the toner container to meet the increasing speed and to ensure an uninterrupted supply of toner from the toner container to the development apparatus. Especially, when there is a shortage of toner remaining inside the toner container, the toner remaining at the bottom of the toner container must be smoothly fed into the development apparatus and the older toner container replace it with a new one.
The present invention has been made to meet the aforementioned requirements, and is intended to provide a toner container and toner supply apparatus that ensure an uninterrupted supply of toner to the development apparatus, despite the shortage of toner remaining in the toner container, to meet the increasing speed of the image forming apparatus.
Further, the present invention relates to a powder container and a powder contained product that are mounted on an apparatus to which powder is supplied. More particularly, it relates to a powder container and a powder contained product that are designed in such a way that the opening of the container is shielded by a film-like sealing material and repeated use is permitted, as well as to a toner container that is mounted on the electrophotographic image forming apparatus including a camera to supply toner, and a toner contained product consisting of this container filled with toner.
[Prior Art-2]
Compared to a container where a cover is used to enclose the opening, the powder container where a sealing material is bonded to the opening of a container to enclose the container provides less costly simplification of the opening structure and ensures a high degree of hermeticity, and is therefore used over an extensive range in the powder related fields. For example, when it is used as a toner contained product used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the product is mounted on an apparatus with the product stored in a container, and the seal is separated to supply toner. This arrangement prevents contamination due to spread of toner, and ensures a high degree of hermeticity during storage period. This makes it possible to maintain long-term product quality.
The powder container with the opening shielded with a sealing material is required to ensure an effective separation of a film-like sealing material from the container opening at the time of separation. The Official Gazette of Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 1983-224364 discloses a powder container where a loop-shaped film-like sealing material is used as a tractive member for separation from the container opening. The Official Gazette of Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 01-280781 discloses a technique of sealing toner into a container as a powder product.
Further, the Official Gazette of Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-104922 discloses a toner supply container wherein a sealing material tractive member called slide cover is provided with embossing to accelerate separation from the sealing compound. Here friction coefficient between the sealing material and sealing tractive member is reduced to ensure smooth separation of the sealing compound, without requiring much force.
In recent years, attention has been given to reuse of resources from the viewpoint of cost reduction and environmental protection. In the field of powder containers, a framework of physical distribution is being established to collect and recover the used containers, which are refilled with powder and are shipped for distribution. Such a reusable container is required to provide a high degree of durability to allow repeated use. However, in the toner supply container disclosed in the aforementioned the Official Gazette of Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-104922, the slide cover is provided with embossing treatment, and reuse of such a container has been found out to be difficult. In other words, the embossed surface where the sealing material has been deposited is roughened, and the bonding strength permitting the reuse of a product cannot be obtained even if the sealing material is deposited.
To solve this problem, attempts were made to process the embossed surface or to set the sealing material deposition temperature at a higher level at the time of reuse to bond the seal in position. However, processing of the embossed surface was to add a process that took much time in preparing for reuse. Further, setting the deposition temperature to a higher level increased the energy consumption and raised the environmental load and processing costs. These measures have failed to achieve the object of cutting down the cost and environmental load by reuse of the container. Further, if the sealing material is bonded at a higher deposition temperature, variations occur in the deposition strength for each container, and it has become difficult to ensure handling quality including smooth separation.
It has been found out that a method for reuse by replacement of an older slide cover with a new one is economically viable. However, there has been much to be improved in the method for reuse through replacement of component parts of the container with new ones.
Studies have been made to find out ways of cost cutting and energy saving by reducing the number of container components. The method of using special-purpose sealing material separation parts and applying uniform load to the sealing material deposited on the container body has been a sure way of separating the sealing material deposited on the container body with a certain amount of strength maintained, without damaging it. For this reason, a slide cover has been an essential component of a powder container.
As described above, when implementing the plan for reuse of the powder contained product comprising a container with its opening enclosed with a film-like sealing compound, many problems have been yet to be solved for effective implementation of a reuse program with consideration given to economical viability and environmental protection.
[Problems to be Solved by the Invention-2]
The present invention has been mode to solve the aforementioned problems.
One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a powder container and a powder contained product using a film-like sealing material that ensures stable, long-term separability and hermeticity, despite measures taken for reuse, namely, despite repeated sealing of the opening with a film-like sealing material by refilling of a used container with powder.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a powder container and a powder contained product characterized in that the aforementioned powder container uses a film-like sealing compound, and the aforementioned powder container and powder contained product ensure easy and reliable separation of sealing material by reduced number of parts from the prior art level, even without using sealing material separation member.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a powder contained product that ensures stable, long-term maintenance of the quality of powder stored in the container, without powder leaking out of the space between sealing material and container, despite repeated filling of a used container with powder and repeated sealing with a sealing compound.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a powder container manufacturing method characterized in that;
in a powder container and powder contained product that use film-like sealing material to seal the opening,
the aforementioned powder container manufacturing method uses a reusable film-like sealing material immune to deterioration of deposition strength and separability at contact positions between the container body and sealing compound, despite measures taken to reuse the used container.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a toner container and toner contained product capable of maintaining stable, long-term separability and hermeticity, despite refilling of a used container with electrostatic image development toner and repeated sealing of the opening with film-like sealing compound.
The present invention further relates to a powder container and a powder contained product, particularly to a powder container and a powder contained product that are best suited to reuse, being strong but easily dismountable, and to a toner container and toner contained product where powder is electrostatic image development toner.
[Prior Art-3]
In recent years, a physical distribution framework has been established. A used powder container is collected by a manufacturer, and the collected container is refilled with powder to be shipped for distribution. To meet the requirements for reuse, most of the container body and its container component members are being made of materials immune to deformation and damage despite repeated usage.
Similar to a cartridge disclosed in the Official Gazette of Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 06-208301, in order to ensure reliable and effective supply of powder to an apparatus and to standardize the parts for a great variety of products, some of powder containers are made of multiple members mounted on the container body, wherein the installation position on the apparatus and component members such as powder supply section are provided separately from the container body. The container of such an arrangement is designed with consideration given to the strength and hermeticity of engagement portions in order to ensure that there is sufficient mechanical strength in parts engagement portions or fitting portions without any leakage of powder from engagement portions. This arrangement results in difficulties in removing engagement portions.
When a manufacturer refills a container with powder, it is sometimes necessary to refill powder after going through a process of cleaning the container body and its component members to ensure that previous powder will not remain inside. This is found in a great number of fields, e.g. in the field of edible powder placed under severe sanitary control including a soybean flour supply cartridge for an automatic rice cake manufacturing apparatus and a powder supply cartridge for an automatic Japanese pancake manufacturing apparatus, and in the field of electrophotographic toner cartridge where beautiful toner image quality is required.
In such fields, quick and reliable disengagement of parts is essential. At present, however, it is difficult to find out a container where disengagement of parts is easy, under the pretext of meeting the requirements for process reduction achieved by creating a rigid fitting at the time of manufacture and the requirements for cost reduction. Further, undue force must be applied to these containers at the time of disengagement of parts, so deterioration will develop due to the load locally applied to the member at the time of disengagement, and constituent members are damaged. Such problems have occurred so far. Reuse of the container is hindered by the damage of the constituent members resulting from the load applied to the members at the time of disengagement.
In some cases, a container is manufactured, for example, through a process of bonding of sealing material to the container opening, with an engagement member locked temporarily on the container body. In such a container manufacturing method, it is preferred that work should be carried out, with temporarily locked engagement members fixed immovable. However, when a tool is used to grip the container body, the container body may be damaged, or deteriorated due to fatigue. To prevent this, a special tool must be custom-designed. It has been not possible to manufacture such a container economically without such investment, according to the prior art.
[Problems to be Solved by the Invention-3]
The present invention has been made to solve the aforementioned problems. To be more specific, the object of the present invention is to provide a powder container and a powder contained product consisting of this powder container filled with powder, wherein the aforementioned powder container comprising multiple members engaged together can be easily disassembled to allow for reuse.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a powder container manufacturing method characterized in that temporary locking of engagement members on the container body is provided without preparing a special tool or jig, and separate work such as bonding of sealing material on the opening can be performed easily at reduced costs.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a powder contained product reusing method characterized in that, when a great number of used powder containers have been collected from the market, these containers can be easily dismounted and cleaned by manufacturers.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide an easily dismountable and reusable electrostatic image development toner container, and an electrostatic image development toner contained product consisting of this toner storage container filled with toner; wherein the electrostatic image development toner container consists of multiple members engaged together.